Missfresh Limited, a Nasdaq-listed Chinese e-commerce platform, is accelerating the rollout of its on-demand live seafood delivery system, which promises to deliver orders in a little over half an hour to customers across the country, after seeing a 20x growth in sales since March.

The company, which uses a pioneering supply and distribution cold chain as well as Distributed Mini Warehouses (DMWs), has expanded its service to eight of the most populous cities in China – Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Tianjin, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Suzhou, and most recently Nanjing.

Missfresh says its delivery system, along with the fresh food e-commerce expertise and experience it has gained over the past seven years, ensures maximum freshness, food safety and speedy delivery of live seafood.

The company’s DMWs – which integrate warehousing, sorting and distribution to streamline the retail distribution chain – are equipped with fish tanks of different salinity and temperature levels, customized for various types of seafood.

Customers can currently choose from more than 100 products curated to cater to Chinese people’s love for live, fresh seafood as well as the taste preferences of different regions in China. For example, customers from eastern China can obtain seafood from nearby Qiandao Lake, while specialties like abalone and turbot are sourced from Dongshan Island and Xingcheng, respectively.

Missfresh says it has optimized quality control processes to uphold high standards of food safety during delivery. All seafood is delivered live in special packaging injected with oxygen, which keeps seafood fresh by minimizing external exposure, or customers can choose to have their purchases delivered pre-cleaned and ready to cook, eliminating the hassle of handling live seafood.

To ensure customer safety and satisfaction, all live seafood is carefully sourced and put through stringent safety checks. Customers can also access test reports for each product in the product details section of the Missfresh app.

According to the company, its approach to the live seafood supply and distribution chain stands out from that of some other retailers, who purchase and transport live seafood every few days, resulting in longer storage periods. With an efficient logistics system and artificial intelligence-enabled supply chain, live seafood is delivered to Missfresh's city sorting centres every day, further ensuring maximum freshness.

From September onwards, customers will also be able to purchase seasonal seafood like mitten crab, on top of the range of seafood that is offered year-round.